Page 18 of Alpha's Fate

For days we continued on like this. Us just talking back and forth about how unfair and upsetting the situation was. We were completely exhausted by the third day. I was hunched over studying, my back aching and my eyes drooping as the words blurred together.

“I call,” I said, slapping my hand on my knee just to remain awake. “Let’s go on a walk. Clear our heads for a bit so we can come back to this later refreshed.”

“A walk?” Cora asked, sounding curious. “Yeah, okay.” She agreed, carefully packing everything up and heading out. She pulled her backpack over her shoulders, and we started off, making our way through the trees.

That feeling of eyes on me was almost second nature at this point. Everywhere we went we were watched, but at this point it was exhausting and annoying than it was creepy. The hairs on the back of my neck no longer raised, I no longer clutched Cora’s hand quite so tight, and now I walked with my head a little higher. I couldn’t wait to get this decision made, this journey over. It was well past time to go home.

“Morally, I think we have to do it.” Cora’s voice broke my reverie and I looked down at her solemnly. “It’s our job and it’s the right thing to do. Their suffering is so great, and I can’t leave them like this. I just can’t. It’s the worse of the choices in mymind, but we have to free them from their suffering.” I nodded slowly, turning to take her other hand in my own.

“I agree,” I murmured. “I agree. It’s going to hurt so badly but it’s the only thing we can do. We have no choice. And maybe we can find something in the library we can use to bring some of it back later. Right now this is what we have to do.”

“You’re right. There could be something at home that will restore the good magic without bringing back the curse, something that can help us. Maybe not,” she sighed softly, looking up at me to make eye contact. I could see the pain in her eyes, reflecting my own emotions back toward me.

“This is impossibly hard,” I said softly, swiping my thumb under her eye as tears began to fall down her face. I couldn’t stand to see her cry. This was the worst feeling in the world for me, to see this kind of pain in my mate. I’d give the world to make her happy again. Days of this, I thought, giving her a tight smile. Days of pain like this for both of us.

“It is. Losing our grove is going to be unbearable for me, but it’s the only thing that feels right. We swore to keep our Packs from suffering and they are included in that,” I said softly. “We can’t ignore their pain.”

“Especially not after what you’ve seen,” she posited softly. “I can’t ignore that. I just cant.”

We walked for hours, slowly picking our way through the shadow forest, just reminiscing on the trip. Everything we’d gone through, everything we’d experienced and seen. Everything we hoped for and the losses we had and would suffer from again. Our lives now versus even just a week ago- a month ago. Everything.

The topic turned to our mundane lives. We’d been gone for a few weeks now and things back at the compound must have progressed quite a bit if plans were going forward as we worked out here. The new building must be in the works now, theskeleton going up at least. That we talked about excitedly, finally finding something to be hopeful about. As long as we came home and things were relatively normal we should be walking home into a new estate, excitement thrumming through the remaining members of our Pack.

I couldn’t fathom that we would come back to find our whole pack intact. It was important to acknowledge that there would be changes in our ranks, people leaving as we spent ever more time in the woods. Those who were on the fence would probably be leaving a few at a time, at least some of them believing we wouldn’t return.

A lot of our ranks who had known about our journey’s purpose had already expressed their bleak beliefs that it was a mission doomed to end in our deaths. We figured out that we might never return. Yari would become the leader in that case, but I hated to put her in that position. Luckily it seemed like we would escape these trials and tribulations physically well.

Once we returned we wouldn’t be able to relax for a while, not in any significant way. There would be no chance for us to unwind, as our presence would need to be felt around the compound for things to get back to normal. We needed to prepare for that, honestly, as neither of us had really thought about it before that. This trip had been supposed to be for just a few days, yet now we were here, weeks later, and we were still working on what we should be doing for the greater good.

What it came down to, ultimately, was that the rest of the Packs in the area didn’t even know about the enchantment on the forest. It was only a select few of us that knew about it at all even in our own Pack. We didn’t want anyone taking advantage of it like Cora’s father and his Beta had. With that in mind, the vast majority of people in Schuylkill wouldn’t even realize there was much of a change aside from maybe being more willing to enter the forest without the gravitas it carried with it now.That’s what our choice came down to. Nobody would know we’d lost that particular aspect of our power. Things would go on as normal and we would maintain our ability to help the area with our money alone.

Things would right themselves eventually and we’d be able to go on to continue to help. The financial decisions we made would need to be a little more clever, relying less on luck and more on trends, but we had plenty to invest and a trusted few who were capable of helping guide us in these decisions. We could continue to collect esoteric books and maybe one of them would help us out in regard to creating our own magic if that was possible. That wasn’t clear yet. We hadn’t come across anything yet, but there were hundreds of books in the library, some dating far earlier than the book we’d used to translate the prophecy and the artifact.

Even if we didn’t ever find a solution we could go on translating books into modern tomes and have them bound in house. We had plenty of people capable of learning to bind new books and as long as we could get the supplies, we could create a whole new library that was translated and clear so this kind of thing didn’t happen again. There wouldn’t be a mad rush for knowledge before we went into a trial of some kind again. Besides, as Cora pointed out, knowledge could only help us to avoid repeating the past. It would help us to better move forward without making the mistakes of our ancestors and elders.

We walked for the rest of the day, breaking for rest and food. We kept all of our research and the artifact enshrined in the pack on her back. I noticed that she was unwilling to part with any of it, protective of all of our work and the key that would set the Unseen Pack free. It was important to her that it never left our sides, always protected and safe with us. Both of us were ready to defend it, if necessary, although neither of us thought we’d really have to. It was a just in case scenario, one I agreed with as well.

“So our decision is made and I actually feel better about it. It’s a relief to just know what our next step is,” Cora said, smiling up at me a little sadly. “Like a relief, even though I don’t like it. Just a relief to know that we’ve got a clear path ahead of us.”

“It seems like it. I feel the same way. It’s just like a weight was lifted off my chest and I was lighter, even if some of that weight remained in my chest like a brick, laying low my soul. “We just have to follow through.”

Chapter nineteen

Cora

We made our way back to camp with our resolve bolstered. It really was a relief to have made a decision, and what I thought was the right one. Though the forest around us was still oppressive we were cautiously optimistic that we would be able to make it through this intact. It would be night soon, or what we recognized as night, and the shuffling through the leaves and the whispers on the wind picked up again. One more night inthe magic, I thought. One more night to savor even the darkest part of the forest before we gave up everything to save people we didn’t even know.

I sat in the crackling fire and cooked, carefully observing the forest around us as the faint light faded into blackness. In the depths of the woods I could see the strange animals, one this time that caught my eye in particular. A white rabbit, a soft glow, tiny antlers. I smiled softly, tears welling in my eyes as I thought of everything we were losing, even this small bit of magic that brought us back together. It looked at me appraisingly and I almost crumpled. I pulled out my notebook and sketched it in there so I could always remember its small frame in the darkness, its assurances that we would be together and live through this as hard as it was.

Once it was done, I closed the notebook and gave it a quiet thank you before it vanished into the underbrush. Just beyond I saw a wolf as if carved from wood resting, green eyes glimmering in the firelight. A dragonfly in the most literal sense, a tiny lizard with wings buzzing past me. There was a deer there covered in moss, lichen, and softly glowing mushrooms. It was as if they were coming to me, worried about their fate. My heart was shattered in my chest realizing that this would all vanish.

But the decision was made. Our wills were strong. Even as I cried, I felt bolstered in our vision and I felt Weston’s arms encircle me from behind. I just leaned into him, pulling the food off the fire and setting it aside momentarily so I could just experience the pain of our choice. Tomorrow all of this would be gone. All the creatures, the guardians, the whispering in the wind and the magic that had led us here gone. We’d walk home in a normal forest. I wondered silently how I could miss something that wasn’t gone, and something we had really only known briefly. I’d gone my whole life without knowing about any of this, so how could I be this broken?

I was bitter that my father had kept all of this from me. I could have spent my childhood reveling in the strangeness of the woods like a fairy land that I desperately wanted back then. Back before I grew up and got bigger ambitions. Growth, change, and lifting of the old ways for new, more compassionate ones. Helping others. Becoming the Alpha of our pack. Later, the goal of living my life to the fullest while I waited, dancing by myself in clubs. Meeting Weston had further changed my path, making me determined to pull our packs together.

Every time I met a goal of mine, I would find myself seeking further, making small changes for the betterment of the whole. That’s why we were here, after all. It was a never-ending climb, but I relished it. I loved the challenge and the ability to create change from within. Recreating a system that had subjugated others for so long.

Everything I worked so hard for came through and made me feel as though I was accomplished, making my mark on the world with every step I took forward. Through the failures and pitfalls, I always stood back up and learned to walk again. That was my resilience, my will to move forward and better myself. It’s why I was still in college for business and finances. I wanted to better myself as well as the world.

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